Joule Africa, a unit of San Francisco-based Joule Investments, is conducting a 24-month study for a hydropower dam in Cameroon on the Katsina-Ala River, said Energy and Water Resources Minister Basile Atangana Kouna.

The 450-megawatt plant will be built within four years of the study’s end, he told reporters in Yaounde, the capital, yesterday. The output will boost Cameroon’s electricity generation by 40 percent, Kouna said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pius Lukong in Yaounde at plukong@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emily Bowers at ebowers1@bloomberg.net